Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are together again. And so far, it's worked out pretty well.

Mason Berg, a 12-year-old Blackhawks fan who has muscular dystrophy, shoots on Blackhawks goalie Anton Forsberg and has an old-fashioned hockey "fight" with Jonathan Toews before practice on March 6, 2018, at the United Center. (Phil Thompson/Chicago Tribune)

Mason Berg, a 12-year-old Blackhawks fan who has muscular dystrophy, shoots on Blackhawks goalie Anton Forsberg and has an old-fashioned hockey "fight" with Jonathan Toews before practice on March 6, 2018, at the United Center. (Phil Thompson/Chicago Tribune)

The agony of an ugly five-goal loss to the Sharks still fresh in his mind, Quenneville put his two biggest stars — Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews — together again before his team faced the Kings on Saturday.

There was enough there to convince Quenneville to keep the two together. They teamed with Brandon Saad on the Hawks’ top line for the fourth game in a row Thursday night, a 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes at the United Center.

The Hawks came from behind to win 5-3 Saturday. Toews scored the go-ahead goal on a pass from Kane with 1 minute, 58 seconds left. Kane added an empty-netter with three seconds left to ice the victory and end the Hawks’ road losing streak at seven.

Three days later, on Tuesday, the two were on the ice together to start overtime, which ended nine seconds later when Toews scored the game-winner on a pass from Kane.

Thursday night didn’t work out so well, though. Kane, Toews and Saad combined for three shots on goal, all of which occurred late during the third period.

“We haven't played that much together the past four or five years,” Kane said. “So anytime we’re put together we try to rely on what we did our first couple of seasons.”

What they did their first couple of seasons is play a lot together.

But that hasn’t been the case in recent years.

With the Hawks in unfamiliar territory, on the outside looking in at the playoffs, trying to recapture some of the magic of years ago made sense to Quenneville.

Before Thursday, Kane and Toews had played just 166 minutes, 43 seconds together in five-on-five situations this season, scoring nine times and while their opponents notched 12.

They played just 391:13 in the same situation last season, 217:43 the year before and only 183:16 when the Hawks won their last Stanley Cup in 2014-15.

Quenneville preferred to spread the wealth as the two began to come into their own in their careers, resulting in his reluctance to play them together, other than on power plays when the two were together for 13 goals for and no goals against going into Thursday.

He figured having two viable threats on separate lines caused more disruption for opponents.

But with this season all but lost as far the postseason is concerned, Quenneville is trying to find anything that works.

“Earlier in the year we had balance,” Quenneville said. “When you look back you think, ‘OK, (Corey Crawford) was doing a good job keeping us in a lot of games. We’re in the race. We’re doing a lot of things that were OK. Kind of going through a rough stretch here.”

So far, the change hasn’t been so bad.

Putting Kane and Toews together also allows Quenneville a glimpse of the future with Vinnie Hinostroza, Nick Schmaltz and Alex DeBrincat together on the second line.

“Joel has done a good job of trying to find different formulas that work when the offense isn't coming,” Toews said after Tuesday’s 2-1 victory. “It has worked these last three games. We can be even better than we have been.”

The best the two ever have been while playing together was 2010-11, when they played 751 minutes of five-on-five together as the Hawks scored 48 goals with just 26 against.

The adjustment, Kane said, has proven pretty seamless.

“It always takes a game or two,” Kane said. “Then sometimes we have shifts right away when we have some chemistry.

“When you put good players on the ice together you tend to defer a little bit and watch the other person, but with us we want to make sure we're both being active.”

Neither is going anywhere anytime soon. Both are signed to identical contracts that will keep them Blackhawks through 2022-23.